The present invention relates to a method of printing, distributing, and placing price information, such as price tags and point-of-purchase signs for use in retail store shelves and displays. For example, it includes aspects relating to price information tags attached to shelves under the products being sold and to other information associated with products for sale. The present method is particularly useful for just-in-time printing and delivery of tags with minimal lead times, and for faster tag changes at stores while reducing labor cost. However, the present invention is contemplated to be broader in scope than just printing and distributing of price information tags.
Consumers (as well as consumer protection laws) require accurate information about products being displayed on store shelves. Price information (such as a price change) placed on a shelf “too soon” or “too late” causes considerable consumer dissatisfaction (e.g., out-of-stocks or “mis-stocks”) and/or causes significant in-store confusion or delays (e.g., price checks), as well as concern from regulatory agencies. However, getting tags onto shelves is a surprisingly complex and difficult task for a number of reasons. For example, buyers may be negotiating on supplier prices right up to the last possible minute, such that prices and even product availability may be uncertain until the “last possible minute.” Product availability and delivery concerns may also cause uncertainty right up to the last possible minute. Management often wants to make product pricing decisions as close as possible to the “on sale” date so that uncertainties about future product availability and consumer purchasing trends and other price-related strategies can be incorporated into the pricing decisions. Thus, a system is desired allowing retail prices to be set as late as possible to allow optimal (last minute) control over retail pricing . . . and further a system is desired giving greater control to the retail store management late in the printing process.
Aside from timing issues noted above, information management is very difficult. Large stores now carry hundreds of thousands of products, and the logistics of getting timely-printed price information tags in appropriate places on store shelves is a time-consuming, highly-manually-intensive task. An amazing amount of time is spent inefficiently walking from one shelf to another, and from one end of a shelf to another end, as price information tags are attached to shelves under associated product. Further, this often leads to errors, such as tags being put under the wrong product, or tags simply not being put up at all. Further, attachment of the tags must be secure and long-lasting, yet inexpensive and easily engaged. Thus, a system is desired allowing tags to be securely attached, with minimal risk of mis-location, with secure but low-cost attachment systems. Further, it is preferable that a particular tag be able to be attached in multiple ways, given that many stores have different attachment mechanisms on their shelves.
Recent studies show that product sales can potentially be increased if the price information tags have high-quality product pictures on them. However, this adds greatly to the cost and lead times required for printing the price information tags. Specifically, in order for pictures to be placed on tags, the data for the pictures must be combined with price information, arranged for printing, and then printed. This greatly complicates printing of price information tags, since it compounds problems associated with getting accurate price information onto the tags, with getting accurate pictures onto the tags. Also, the quality of the pictures is very important, since poor photographs will potentially result in the consumer implying poor quality to the store and/or to the products being sold.
Some stores have attempted to reduce the lead time for providing price information tags by having in-store printing capabilities. However, it is difficult to control the quality of in-store printing for many reasons. High-quality printing equipment is expensive, and it is often not cost-justified to purchase a high-quality machine for each of several different stores. Further, the ability to produce high quality pictures is closely related to skilled machine operators and good quality printing materials and maintenance of the printing machine. Thus, it is difficult to control the quality of on-site printing machinery over time.
Digital presses are relatively new machines, and are capable of producing extremely high-quality pictures at high speeds. Software does exist for managing work flow and information to the digital presses. For example, see Wiechers patent application publications 2005/0030557 A1 and 2005/0043848 A1. However, to the present inventor's knowledge, the advantages and abilities of digital presses have not been used in the environment of price information tags and displays, where customized real-time information is used in conjunction with attachment technology to form tags and displays having particular structure facilitating their use in a just-in-time manner to optimize their value to a retail store.
Recently, some stores have begun using a newly-developed extruded price-tag holder attached to a front of in-store shelves. One known extruded price-tag holder (described later in the present disclosure) includes a clear front panel connected along a bottom to a co-extruded opaque rear panel. The front and rear panels define an open-top slot for receiving a “main” price tag, visible through the clear front panel. The clear front panel further includes a frictional three-point slip-fit top attachment system defined by alternating fingers or ridges that allow a “supplemental” price tag to be slipped upwardly into frictional engagement and retained by friction along a top ⅛th inch of the supplemental price tag. By this arrangement, a supplemental price tag indicating an “in-store special” can be overlaid on the main price tag, without having to remove the main price tag. The arrangement is advantageous since it allows supplemental price tags to be quickly inserted with a simple upward motion, and also quickly removed by a quick downward pull.
However, the three-point slip-fit attachment system of this extruded price tag holder sometimes does not create enough friction to retain the supplemental price tag, which results in the supplemental price tags being knocked out of position toward a side (such as being knocked to an angled position) or results in the supplemental price tags falling completely off the price tag holder. For example, inadequate friction may be caused by wear on the flanges that form the three-point slip-fit retention system. Also inadequate friction may be caused by the extruded flanges being longitudinally warped or “wavy,” which is a fundamental processing problem that often occurs in extrusions due to the extrusion process. This longitudinally warped condition may occur in extrusions as originally manufactured, or may occur over time as the extrusion “creeps” and changes shape over time. For whatever reason, the relationship of the tips of the three flanges intended to cause the frictional retention may vary, resulting in the three flanges in at least some areas not creating sufficient friction on an inserted price tag. An improvement is desired in a price tag so that the price tag will positively and securely engage this three-point attachment system, even if the three flanges are distorted out of their friction-causing positions. However, the improvement must preferably still allow the price tag to be pulled out of the extruded price tag holder without damage to the extruded price-tag holder.
Thus, a system and method having the aforementioned advantages and solving the aforementioned problems is desired.